India’s stand-in captain Rishabh Pant was in his element behind the stumps on day one of the second and final Test against South Africa. This test got underway on November 22, 2025, at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati.
South Africa won the toss and chose to bat first. India made two changes as Sai Sudharsan replaced Shubman Gill and Nitish Kumar Reddy came in for Axar Patel.
Aiden Markram (38) and Ryan Rickelton (35) added 82 runs for the first wicket. Jasprit Bumrah dismissed Markram, and Kuldeep Yadav accounted for Rickelton.
But Tristan Stubbs (49) and Temba Bavuma (41) added 84 runs for the third wicket before Ravindra Jadeja dismissed Bavuma, and Kuldeep had Stubbs caught in slips by KL Rahul. South Africa stumbled a bit from there, day one of 247/6 with Senuran Muthuswamy and Kyle Verreynne at the crease.
During the first two sessions, a number of stump-mic moments involving Pant and Kuldeep Yadav went viral, demonstrating how actively he attempted to uplift his bowlers and set the tone.
His encouragement began early with, “Badhiya KD, good start hai yeh” (Very good KD. This is a good start,” followed soon after by, “Come on, come on bhai, body language yaar, upar rakhenge bhai” (Keep up the body language).”
At another point, he urged the left-arm wrist-spinner with, “Oye yaar KD, aise daalega toh phir wicket mil jayega yaar” (If you keep bowling like this, you'll get a wicket)” and later reminded the fielders, “chalo chalo bhaiyo, kuch mahaul banana padega” (We'll have to set the tone ourselves).”
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